Finally, a software synth that's harder than hardware.
Software synths have been around for almost as long as the personal computer. But somehow, they’ve never really made the grade. Too demanding on computer resources. Too complex. Too limited. Indifferent sounding. Unplayable. Or simply not cool enough. But now, the first software synth to equal and surpass the power, glory and attitude of dedicated hardware has arrived. In fact, it’s a lot more than just a synth. It’s a complete music system.
The Age of Reason is finally here.
Analog synth, sampler, drum machine, ReCycle!-based loop player, mixer, effects, pattern sequencer, and more. As many of each as your computer can handle. Reason is an infinitely expandable MIDI studio on a CD-ROM, complete with its own realtime sequencer.
All the power of hardware, but without the hassle. Forget tripping on cables. Reason doesn’t need dusting. Picking up where you left off is as simple as turning the power on. When you save your work, your whole studio setup is stored along with your music. You can even include actual samples, loops and drum kits in the file, for easy web publishing or email distribution to other Reason users. For once, total recall is truly total.
And so is the sound. The audio quality is everything you would expect from the people behind ReCycle! and ReBirth. But more importantly, the instruments and effects are loaded with character and attitude. Reason will not just impress, but inspire you.
All the gear you need
Each unit in Reason’s virtual rack is edited from its own on-screen front panel. All the sliders, knobs, buttons and functions of the equivalent hardware are there. But more importantly, on several counts, Reason is better than hardware.
Need another piece of gear? Forget your overdraft and save yourself the bus fare to the music store. Choose what you need from the Create menu, and it appears in your rack, logically patched into the signal chain. If you ever wished you had eleven samplers, Reason is definitely for you.
Don’t like the routing? Press the Tab key, and the rack will turn over, revealing inputs, outputs, CV and Gate connections. Use the on-screen patch cords to set up complex routings and cross-device modulation patches. And if you run out of mixer channels, just create another mixer.
All the sounds you need. Reason ships with a large (500mb+) sound bank with all the sounds you need to get going. Hundreds of loops, drum kits and samples from e-LAB, hundreds of multisampled instruments from Dublab and hundreds of Synth patches will keep you busy for a while.
The studio of your dreams is just a few mouse clicks away.
Reason adapts to you
Use Reason the way you want to:
As a self-contained synth studio system. Everything you need is there, including a fast and flexible sequencer with powerful, dedicated event editors for each type of device.
Using ReWire, patched into and synched with your audio sequencer. Process Reason’s audio output with plug-in effects and mix it with your hard disk tracks. With Reason in ReWire mode, its instruments are automatically patched into the mixer in Cubase VST. Integration is seamless.
As a virtual synth rack with your MIDI sequencer. Reason’s devices can be handled in exactly the same way as hardware.
Performance and latency
Reason is completely native. All sound is generated by your computer’s CPU. No special hardware is needed, most reasonably current PC's or Mac's will do, provided they have sound circuits. ASIO, MME, DirectX and SoundManager support means that Reason is compatible with just about every sound card on the planet.
Reason performs. On a modest computer, the number of devices and effects you can use simultaneously will be limited, but Reason will still run happily on most contemporary setups. At the other end of the scale: a PIII PC or a G3 or G4 Mac and a high-quality soundcard with ASIO drivers will give you a monster rack, pro quality audio and a latency equal to hardware.
More reasons
There is more, of course. A lot more. Like a database for effortless file handling. AIFF and Wave export. A ReBirth Input machine for integration between Reason and ReBirth. Comprehensive MIDI remote control. And so on.
The graphic event editors in Reason’s sequencer are specific to the type of device the track controls. For example, the drum machine editor has a separate lane for pattern changes, and when editing a REX file player track (above), the sample slices are displayed to the left, etc. And if you don’t like the default setup, you can customize the editors
Reason’s devices not only perform like hardware, they look and feel like it too. All front panel controls are live, move them while the sequencer is running, and the movement will be recorded.
Need more reasons to listen to Reason? Check out the screenshot, listen to the voice of reason or read more.
